The Canada Cultural
Sovereignty Project
A nation-building project for a stronger, culturally sovereign Canada
By Aldo Mazza
January 14, 2026
Canada stands at a pivotal moment in defining its cultural independence. Amid shifting economic and artistic dynamics with its largest trading partner, the United States, the National Arts Project (CCSP) calls for renewed national investment in the infrastructure, institutions, and creative systems that sustain artistic life. Rooted in Canada’s longstanding commitment to education, health, and culture as the foundations of a prosperous society, this initiative envisions a unified framework that empowers artists, strengthens domestic production, and reaffirms cultural sovereignty as a central pillar of national identity.
Primary concern
The prompting for this project is the imposition of financial tariffs on Canada by the United States government to address its claim of an immense corporate trade deficit between the two countries, in favour of Canada. This is currently having a major effect on the standard of living of performing artists in this country.
There is a substantial artistic and cultural trade deficit between Canada and the United States, in favour of the United States.
At the same time, there is also a substantial artistic and cultural trade deficit between Canada and the United States, in favour of the United States. This is largely due to the population imbalance between the two countries (Canada: 41 million; the U.S.: 340 million) and to Canada’s close geographical proximity to the United States. This deficit has resulted in the gradual overshadowing of Canadian talent/creativity and a reduction of deserving Canadian artistic content. Canada must attempt to reduce its dependence on American culture, including its cultural products, and become more reflective and proud of its own cultural history. The proposed solution: We must invest in and strengthen our National Cultural Sovereignty.
Brief historical background
The Canada Council for the Arts was established in 1957 by an Act of Parliament. It was created to foster and promote the arts in Canada, offering financial assistance and services to artists and arts organizations. It is Canada’s public arts funder, with a mandate to foster and promote the study and enjoyment of, and the production of works in, the arts. The Council’s origins trace back to the Massey Commission, which recommended the creation of a publicly funded arts council.
Shortly thereafter, when Canada was under the leadership of former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau in the 1960s, he and his government decided to politically engage in making music distribution systems available to Canadian music creators. The Prime Minister appointed Pierre Juneau, for whom Canada’s national Juno Awards are named. Former head of the Canadian Radio and Television Commission (CRTC) from 1968 to 1975, he implemented a 70% Canadian content law for all music on Canadian media. This historic move created a robust Canadian music scene, and Canada has become one of the world’s leaders in music creation and export.
In the 1960s, the Canada Council also created a National Touring Office for Canadian performing artists, which identified and developed a publication of Canadian artists available to tour, as well as a compendium of national performance venues and local promoters who all worked together to sustain Canadian artists and the culture sector talent to tour across the country. Re-named The Touring Office of the Canada Council for the Arts, and now known as the circulation and touring component of Arts Across Canada and Abroad, the Touring Office played a crucial role in supporting the presentation of Canadian performing arts across the country, and as a member of the Foreign Affairs Department subsidy program committee, internationally.
‘The Canada Council for the Arts was created to foster and promote the arts in Canada, by offering financial assistance and services to artists and arts organizations.’
The Touring Office also provided touring grants to Canadian performing artists to supplement the fees they negotiated locally. Other programs were established to encourage the development of artists’ management, and the Touring Office became directly involved in international artistic exchanges by guaranteeing quid pro quo touring services for foreign artists in exchange for their governments’ assistance with Canadian artists touring abroad.
Key aspects of the Touring Office’s history and function
- Early Focus:
The Canada Council, created in 1957, aimed to foster the arts through financial assistance and special services. The Touring Office, likely emerging in the 1970s alongside other initiatives such as the Art Bank, was a key part of this support system.
. - Building National Presence:
The program supported touring and exhibition activities for Canadian artists, groups, and organizations, helping artists to reach diverse audiences across Canada to build reputations and national profiles.
. - International Reach:
The Circulation and Touring program also supported the bringing of Canadian art and artists to the world, helping artists and organizations gain international exposure, foster artistic exchange, and develop markets.
Other networks emerged during the early years of the Touring Office, such as “Les Jeunesse Musicales” in Quebec, whose network worked closely with other French-speaking countries, exchanging touring artists.
During this time, many of Canada’s provinces established their own Arts Councils and touring office networks to collaborate with the Touring Office based in Ottawa. The national CBC/Radio-Canada television and radio networks worked in tandem with Canadian artists, their agents, and artist management to support the Canadian cultural sector.
By the 1990s, however, successive federal and provincial governments had taken steps to diminish investment in Canada’s cultural sector. Touring support office budgets were diminished or closed down altogether, disabling grants and support to artists and crippling artist management development programs. This led to a reduction in cultural programs, except for a select few Canada Council programs. There was a serious loss of infrastructure supporting the recognition and development of Canadian artists.
‘By the 1990s, successive federal and provincial governments had taken steps to diminish investment in Canada’s cultural sector.’
As a result of the government’s policies, Canada is now experiencing an Artistic and Cultural Trade Deficit with the U.S. Canada now has limited TV, radio, and movie “personalities” since Canadian networks now purchase U.S. media primarily. We have a bare minimum of television and film production to export, let alone consume ourselves.
The province of Quebec, on the other hand, continued to maintain its own French-language cultural production program under the province’s Ministère de la Culture et des Communications. This has led Quebec to produce its own star system in TV, movies, and music, which has maintained its independence, self-sufficiency, and growth.
How to make up for the artistic and cultural gap
Our proposal is to create a National Arts Project by first establishing a National Arts Centre as an internal entity in Ottawa. The function of this National Arts Centre would be to re-establish the original equivalent of the National Touring Office at the NAC, with a direct connection to the Canada Council for the Arts. The office would oversee programming, development, and creation of Canadian talent in stage, film, and music. It would also ensure more opportunities for co-production with arts organizations across Canada. And more international exposure for Canadian artists abroad.
There should also be a direct connection of this National Touring Office to the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation/Radio Canada) for the purpose of national and international distribution of Canadian TV, film, theatre, and music performances.
Each province’s cultural office would once again be associated with the National Touring Office and would maintain a national network of performance venues to coordinate local, provincial, and national tours. Large cities would collaborate with their cultural offices to be part of these networks, where independent producers can support tours by national-level artists, orchestras, ballet companies, etc.
Now more than ever, our Canadian identity must be proudly celebrated. We need to invest in the CBC TV network to create Canadian content and a national network of five top pro shows – Halifax, Montreal, Toronto, Winnipeg, and Vancouver – each producing one weekly music-talk show, which would be broadcast on the same day/time each week. As in the past, the CBC should be given budgets to produce content from TV shows, streaming talk shows, and variety shows to engage Canadian viewers.
‘The CBC, as in the past, should be given budgets to produce content from TV shows, streaming talk shows, and variety shows to engage Canadian viewers.’
It is essential to establish a Canadian cultural network dedicated to developing and supporting Canadian talent and media, ensuring that creators no longer feel compelled to leave the country in pursuit of recognition as established artists.
We must develop homegrown media content that retains millions in royalty and payment revenues within Canada.
It is time to rebuild a central Canada Council office and performance venue, complete with a multi-tiered national live performance and streaming network, enabling access not only in major urban centres but also in remote and smaller communities across our vast nation.
Also, we must involve the Canadian arts and culture community in coming together across the country to help build our Canadian arts and cultural networks so that we may become more self-sufficient in this important sector, which is one of the country’s top five economic engines.
Final thoughts to consider
Each civilized country has three sectors: Education, Health, and Culture, which are essential to a thriving, healthy society. These sectors must have supported structures in place and be responsible to their citizens.
- Education
Countries have a Ministry of Education which establishes the references, subjects, programs, curriculums, exam strategies and their relevance universally, There are teachers trained, school boards, structures in districts, individual schools and the citizens go to schools creating an important paradigm from elementary levels to higher levels at university levels in research, providing basic general education as well as high level and so on. Professionals graduating from the educational system are then hired in that system to maintain and keep the citizens well-served.
. - Health
Countries have a Ministry of Health that establishes national norms, builds and supports hospitals, clinics, universities, and medical faculties, and trains doctors, nurses, and other health care workers, from lab technicians to health care providers. work. The government supports and controls this paradigm on the national, provincial, and city levels. Professionals graduating from this system are then hired by the established hospitals, clinics, and so on.
. - Culture
The arts, culture, and entertainment sector is a vital component of a prosperous society. Yet it is often marginalized and mistakenly viewed as less important than education and health. In reality, this sector ranks among the country’s top five economic engines¹: every dollar invested in the arts generates $29 in economic activity.²
While we have a Ministry of Culture in national, provincial, and civic administrations, it is clearly poorly structured. As with the other two sectors, this sector needs to be supported, financed, and implemented from the top down.
¹ The research from the Business Data Lab, which was commissioned by the national charity Business / Arts in partnership with the Canada Council for the Arts, says the arts and culture sector contributed $65 billion to the economy last year. It says that since 2011, growth in the arts and culture sector has also outpaced that of key industries such as oil and gas, wholesale trade, retail trade, construction, and manufacturing.
² A new report from the Canadian Chamber of Commerce says every dollar the government invests in the arts generates $29 in economic activity (Canadian Press, October 29, 2025)
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of WestmountMag.ca or its publishers.
Feature image: Mark Angelo Sampan – Pexels
Aldo Mazza is an internationally recognized multi-percussionist, recording artist, clinician, composer, author, publisher, artistic director, producer, and educator. He is a member of the internationally acclaimed percussion quartet, Répercussion. kosamusic.com
